Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-01-29
A QUESTION or HONOR
STlRS UP THE ELoQuENcE OF OUR
NATIONAL SENATE.

Beck's Bill to Fence in Congressional In
Remarks in the House Anent An Ex-
eeutive Ofhcer- Chinese Charity-Hav-
erIy's Latest "Ad"-Jordan to Resign
WASHINGTON CRY, Jan 29.-The senate
Friday considered Beck's bill to prohibit
members of congress from acting as attor-
news of railways which have or may have
interests in legislation in congress. Teller,
while never engaging in the employment
which the bill prohibited, believed the bill
bad in its effect ami in support of the efforts
which were making to destroy the senate's
usefulness and bring about its adjustment, a
ccnsummation that would never take place
without revolution and the destruction of
the constitution.
Wilson of Maryland would vote for
the bill. Common justice and decency de-
manded that every member of congress
should be free from all bias in voting on the
mighty questions affecting the people as
against gigantic corporations Railroad cor
porations could secure able lawyers outside
of the senate
Morgan said the bill was born in heat and
perhaps under the pressure of popular
clamor 1t described a misdemeanor, while
it was well known that the constitution pro-
hibited the arrest of a member of congress
under a lnisdemeanor, when in attendance on
or on his way to congress
Hoar said that his interest in the bill
was certainly impersoual The principle
which lay at the bottom of the proposed leg
islation was question which affected the
legislative policy not only of congress, but
of the state legislatures. Members of con-
gress, or of state legislatures, were not made
out of monks The theory was that that
was the best legislative body which con-
tanned the representatives of all the great in
terests of the country. No reasonable man
expected that a man who came to congress
would abandon all the lucrative occupations
and employments of life. Unless the ma
tional legislature was to be made up Of
monks, or men condemned to withdrawal
from all the occupations and employments of
life, it was impossible that the theory on
which the bill rested could be carried into
practice. 1t applied equally to savings banks,
to manufacturers to commerce, TO national
banks. Any member Of congress who had been
engaged as counsel for any of these interests,
or whose own business was connected with
them, had the same bias resting on his mind
as is he had BET n employed as counsel for
railroad companies. So as to possession of
real estate in the Dictrct of Columbia I'm
der the principle of the bill, no senator or
representative owning real estate in the Dis
trict could take part in legislation for the
District There was not a suggestion that
ltIralxy e.,
take, ever had undertaken, or ever would
| undertake, an obligation in violation of his
legislative duty. The bill was aimed at a state
of things not existing. and not likely to ex-
ist. He was willing to go as far as to pro-
vide that, when a land grant railroad COM
pany had legislation before congress, no SEN
| ator or member who bore the relation to
to that company of counsel and client should
take part in that legislation.
The house had lively debate on the bill
for the suppression of the pleuro-pneumonia.
Swinburn of New York. in opposing the
bill. characterized the commissioners report
as unreliable and untruthful, and said that
the chief of the bureau of animal industry was
| a would-be national butcher, and denounced
him as either deceitful or ignorant
Warner Of Ohio declared that he had never
known of bill which so utterly ignored all
constitutional limitations of the government,
| and so completely trampled upon all state
authority, and he predicted that the supreme
court would decide such bill to be uncon.
stitutional. The farmers could attend tc
their cattle better than some fool in author.
ity in Washington could, but the theory o
the bill was that man picked up and put il
a handsome office in Washington could man.
age the stock farms of the nation On this
principle the provisions Of the bill should ex.
tend TO hog cholera and the chicken cape
| Mcmillan of Tennessee pr Jtested strongly
| against that provision which, be stated, per
united the agents of the agricultural depart.
ment to enter any mans homestead and
| above all law and all constitution, to range
| fhera at will